Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. People from all over the state (Illinois, of course) go there; thus, the students there often have extended weekends of usually 4 days, every 6 weeks or so. Commonly looked at as "that smart people school," and its population typically has about as many Asians as white people. People start at IMSA as Sophomores, which means that people usually attend one year at their local high school, then go to IMSA, excepting shmen.

IMSA has a weird blue sculpture called Yare in front of it. There's also Entelechy which is some random point sticking up into the sky. If you walk inside, there's a giant kaleidoscope, a giant chessboard on the carpet, and a giant hamster ball. IMSA also has a pool, a pond, a hill that rules for sledding, a random playground, and a bunch of other stuff.

Living in one of the seven residential halls is fun. IMSA is fun because you get to live with your friends, but students often find themselves regretting the little time they spend with their friends because of all the time-consuming homework and other crap they have to put up with.

IMSA is composed of a lot of REALLY different people, but there are some commonalities in certain groups of people. Of course, there are the nerdy types that study all their lives and never see the light of day or talk to people, but there are very few of those. There ARE many people, however, that study and study, but talk to people as well, but will never go out of their way to spend quality time with their friends. They'll say "hi" to you, and talk with you, but they won't plan any fun times; they just hide and study. The majority of IMSA students, however, are normal people but better. They want to be more than they are, and they're cool all-in-all. The main problem is the workload, and this keeps people from spending a lot of time with their friends, especially junior year.

A lot of the teachers are cool, especially in the social studies department. Certain ones cuss in class on a regular basis, but nobody really cares, because at IMSA, people are past that.

A school, where students may or may not learn, which is mostly attended by weird crazy stressed people who:
a) don't eat, sleep, or do homework in order to play video games
or
b)live and breathe drama so they are mostly always super emotional about something
c) are super asian and hole up in their room to do homework
d) spend their free time doing stupid things like video taping themselves blowing up their bathroom or putting a chair on YAREd) are some combination of the four

One girl went to imsa for a day, but due to the huge amounts of stress and testosterone she felt, went home imidiatly to cry to her mother.

IMSA is a school where people who are smart go - not only nerds. IMSA is a place with a VERY diverse student body, both socially as well as culturally. Everyone fits in somewhere. There are the robotic team members, nerds for the most part who are really nice people, and the larger majority who are fun-seeking students who can attain good grades with close to minimal effort. The fun-seeking students are then divided into several smaller groups. There are the hermits, who never leave their room, wing, or residential hall, the delinquents, and the all around super extroverts.

But on the topic of relationships, it is a school for gay people, meaning homosexuality is welcomed there by everyone. Deliberately trying to discriminate against gay people is not tolerated by anyone at IMSA.

The food at IMSA is good initially, but exquisitely repetitive. Almost no one sleeps. On average most people get around 6 to 7 hours of sleep. The homework is not fun at all.

The social life: for those who are intellectuals, or were too smart to fit in at their old school, this is the ideal place. Everyone is like-minded on some level, and everyone can find a core group of friends.

The sports teams suck. TRULY suck.

Overall, its a great place, but not what most people think.

"hey, what school do you go to?"
"I go to imsa, the Illinois Math and Science Academy."
"OHHH, you must be reallly smart or something, like a super nerd, right?"
"Yes, it is. I rarely sleep and spend hour every day doing homework in order to get the perfect 4.0 gpa that, coupled with my 36 act composite score, will let me walk right into Harvard."